Scenario Proposal Thread

[MarkSheppard]

From time to time, while reading books, I notice really good Ideas for scenario design, and I make note of them, and then usually forget them later. This thread is sort of a "post-it" note to myself about these ideas, and also what I hope will become a useful resource to post ideas for scenarios by those of us who see a good idea, but don't have the time or expertise to turn them into scenario, so that others can do it.

Okay, first up by me is:

The Yemen War.

A civil-war which lasted from 1962 to 1970. It's also referred to as the North Yemen Civil War. Basically the Royalists of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen were supported by Saudi Arabia, while the Republican Factions of the Yemen Arab Republic were supported by Egypt and the Soviet Union.

In many ways, Vietnam could creditably be called "America's Yemen." This was a big war that tied up quite a lot of Egypt's elite troops for quite a while, becoming a very important factor in Middle East calculations, since the best Egyptian troops were fighting in this dirty little war, impacting Egyptian fighting prowess. A Very brutal and nasty war all in all.

Egyptian involvement can be broken down as:

October 1962: A bit less than 5,000 troops
December 1962: 15,000 Regular troops
Late 1963: 36,000 Regular Troops
Late 1964: 50,000 Regular Troops
Late 1965 55,000 Regular Troops (High water mark of Egyptian committment), divided up into: 13 infantry regiments of one artillery division, one tank division and several Special Forces as well as paratroop regiments.

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Mount Hermon - Syria's Eben Emael
October 1973

Mount Hermon was a 9,232 foot mountain which was used by the Israelis as a giant electronic warfare outpost, from which they could read, track and jam Syrian Communications at Will.

To get rid of it, the Syrians staged a spectacular operation reminiscent of Eben Emael in 1940.

After a 50 minute artillery barriage of the mountain outpost, four Mi-8s carrying Syrian Commandoes from the 82n Parachute Regiment Landed. Despite it's importance, the Mount was lightly defended by the Israelis, with only a few troops and lots of noncombatant technicians. There were no heavy weapons and only a few LMGs available. The main battle lasted for about an hour, upon which the Syrians gained possession of the mountaintop, and the Israelis withdrew into the bunkers below, and it turned into a stalingrad-like battle within the bunkers, room by room, hallway by hallway.

The battle ended with the Syrians in control of the place, and holding vital Israeli codes as well as leaving them in charge of all the highly sensitive electronic gear, which was promptly shipped off to the Soviet Union.

[VDS]

A hypothetical future conflict that is looking more likely every day is a civil war in the Nigerian Delta.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5285556.stm

With the Delta being the source of Nigeria's oil wealth, it is not unlikely that the west would intervene. The UK (former colonial power), the Netherlands (Dutch Shell), and the US (major consumer of Nigerian oil) could potentially intervene.

[Randy]

I think a good scenario would be the Hungarian Revolution. Not much has been covered about this conflict.

[Irinami]

What about all the Merc work in Africa in the middle of the century?

[MarkSheppard]

Canada in Desert Storm Hypo scenario

Posted by 1Hussar in the TOE thread on Canadian Armor:



Canada had an opportunity to send combat troops to Iraq in the first Gulf War. The plan was to have Canadian troops deal with bypassed Iraqi units.

In the end, Canada was unable to participate. It was not operationally ready to do so, because its obsolescent Leopard 1 tanks, M113 and Grizzly wheeled APC's were deemed incapable of doing the job without undue risk. Long-standing resupply and transport problems originating in Canada also prevented Canadian forces from being ready in a timely manner. Finally, the politicians did not like the casualty estimates (an election was pending) and drastically down-scaled Canada's role.

The greatest irony was that the Canadian troops to be deployed to Iraq were stationed in Germany, and were at least nominally trained to deal with a large-scale enemy force (whose general ORBAT and T&OE then was what Iraqi forces were based on).

[MarkSheppard]

Mahdi Army Campaign.

Basically, Al Sadr's Mahdi army is a pretty large force, with about 40,000 men he can call upon, and at least 11,000 armed effectives at any time; and they can control large contigiuous areas of Iraqi urban areas; which makes a campaign centered around his Mahdi Army interesting; from both points of view; as the Mahdi player, you actually have a decent amount of fighters; not just the usual 10 to 30 men that an insurgent group has, while as the US player, you have to clear the city of his men while not incurring excessive casualties...